


DOCTOR WHO: The Devil's Base

by eastwoodflemingfreak



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Post-Episode: 2006 Xmas The Runaway Bride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 16:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30024567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eastwoodflemingfreak/pseuds/eastwoodflemingfreak
Summary: Base 666 was built as one of many substitute human living spaces after the Earth became too polluted. Due to complications that occurred while it was built, the base is badly funded and offers not much of a future for anyone living there.A young woman, who worked hard to be able to leave the base, but never quite managed to, gets caught up in the crossfire of three alien parties battling each other for the future of the base: The Ossoisiclinia, a bat like alien race that spread its larvae across the base without the humans noticing, a Zygon, who managed to infiltrate the state by wearing a familiar face, and a manic man, who wields a glowing stick and calls himself "The Doctor".---------Hello everyone. This is the first DW fanfiction I am posting on here. I am usually not a big fan of using OC's, which is why I struggled a lot writing this story. In the end I came to the conclusion that I think it's enjoyable anyway. So, here you go. :)
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who) & Original Female Character(s), The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

Base 666, also known as the Devil's base is part of the solar system of the Milky Way. It's one of 1000 bases that have been built in this universe after the Earth had been made uninhabitable. While life on the other bases is at least bearable and the human race had continued their lives just like before, base 666 had always caused problems. There had already been trouble while it had been built. The plans burned at some point, taking a whole building with them. The shuttle taking the operators to the location where the station was to be built was taken down by a meteor. When finally they started working on it, something, quite possibly an alien, crashed into the site. All of the people working there disappeared afterwards. Most of them were never found. The one person they did find, was, well, not exactly in pieces. Most probably killed by the same alien life form that had destroyed the site. Not that they weren't used to aliens by then. They just really weren't precautious. Humans never were.  
Despite the backlashes they somehow managed to finish building the base and shortly after the first citizens moved in. There was an air lag. All of the people on the base died this day. That didn't stop the settlers though. The hole was fixed and the next group of people could arrive. This time everything seemed to work out until one night a woman disappeared. She was sucked into space, as they later found out. Now the settlers were done with this concept and forced the government to build an artificial atmosphere, so that they wouldn't have any further incidents with the vacuum, which technically would have been the next step on their list anyway, but the people needed to feel like they were able to actually move anything at all. The building of it went surprisingly smooth, but they accidentally locked in an - to humans - unknown, and apparently highly aggressive and dangerous alien species. They are only active at night, but until the people found out that they could not go outside, not leave open any windows or doors as soon as the sun set some lives were taken. By now they have very strict rules concerning the curfew, but life gets on somehow. It has to.  
Base 666 has a very simple design. Five districts, all meeting in a large mall in the middle of the base. District 1 to 4 are homes while district 5 are the military quarters. The floors connecting them can hardly be distinguished from the flats people live in. High, illuminated ceilings, white walls, light grey floors, and steel doors is everything you could see wherever you went looking. The people who live there always hope for a chance to move to another base, but the journey is expensive, as are the stays. And, if they are entirely honest, none of the bases really looks a lot different.


	2. Chapter 1

Base 666 is where Joanita Terha-Utaj lives. She is 21 years old and was born on the base. She is not entirely sure what her heritage is. She knows that she is part human, but more than that she is not sure. She just knows that her naturally blue hair can't be of human origin.   
Joanita is an actress. Actually, she waits tables, but she studied acting in hope to somewhen be successful enough to be able to leave the base and go somewhere else. Since she had been a child her biggest dream had always been to travel the universe, to visit a lot of places, to experience extraordinary things. At least get out of this totally boring and really monotonic life on base 666. She always started saving money, but every time she almost had enough to pay a trip to base 665, which is closest by, and at least somewhat bigger and more influential than base 666, something goes wrong. The last time she had saved money for about a year. Finally she had enough. But on the day she wanted to book the ticket, she got a call. Her mother had been taken to a hospital on the other side of the platform, where she had been on vacation. She was really sick. From one half of her money Joanita had paid the ride to the hospital, from the other one she had paid the funeral that had been shortly after.  
Since that day, Joanita had tried desperately to save more money, but she was frustrated. She was knocked out by the boredom that was overwhelming and omnipresent. And every day seemed to set the boredom one level up. But today should be the last boring day in a long time.  
Today, like on every other day, Joanita had got up, quickly brushed her hair, cursing the knots and the fact that she didn't own enough money to get a short haircut at the hair dresser's. Then she had put it up into a tight bun, had put on her blue working uniform, which consisted of tight pants and a leathery blouse, combined with a pair of white, knee high boots, cursing dress codes and high heels, then she had walked into the mall, cursing the busily running people, and started her work, cursing the non existent theaters that didn't finally offer her a job. She smiled at people nevertheless, asking about their wishes, listening to their orders, and hating every moment of being forced to do what she was told.  
She had already been working for four hours by now and had done absolutely nothing interesting- she hadn't even got into a conversation with any of the guests, nor the staff, not that she did very often anyway- when she spotted a new face in the crowd. A man she had never seen before headed over right to the café and took a seat at one of the tables. He smiled a wide, slightly flirtatious smile at her, when she approached him. He wore a pinstriped suit beneath a long, brown coat, and a tie. Joanita wondered when she'd seen a tie for the last time. And his shoes. Were they… converse? Weren't they out of fashion for a literal billion years?  
Joanita handed the man a menu and waited for him to scan through it. "What shall it be?" She asked then. The man smiled up at her as he put the menu down. "Well, seeing as this is my first time dining here, what would you recommend?" Joanita stilled for a moment. The menus were the same in every restaurant and café all over the bases. And because they were using the same aromatics as everywhere, it would even taste the same. Usually people knew that. Nevertheless, she bowed over his shoulder slightly to check the menu, always staying polite and seeming interested. And, funnily, she really found this man interesting. He seemed so out of place, but frankly didn't seem to care. She wondered how he managed it.  
"Our fish soup is quite good." She reached over his other shoulder and pointed at the listing in the menu and ignored the weird beeping sound she suddenly heard.  
The man nodded in thought and she straightened up a little. The beeping continued for about thirty seconds already and neither the man nor Joanita had spoken a word. But he didn't seem disturbed by the noise, he just considerately stared at the menu. She wondered whether he actually heard the noise, and just as she was about to ask him about it, it stopped and a confused look appeared on the man's face. A really cute confused look. Wide brown eyes, looking up at her in utter disbelief. "You've got fish here?" He asked, and Joanita held back a chuckle. Did he really not know that? But somehow it didn't surprise her as much as it should have.  
"No, we do not. It's aromatics, sir." She responded and he looked like he was angry with himself for having asked such a stupid question.  
"Oh, I see." He finally said, playing it casual. "Do they taste anything like actual fish?" Joanita frowned slightly. Another one of these questions she should be surprised about, but really wasn't. "I'm sorry sir, but I can't answer this question. I have never had any real fish."  
The man looked at her for a moment, his look of confusion obvious again. Then, once more, he played it casual. "Right…" He said. "I will take the soup then."  
"Very well sir." Joanita nodded and took off. She would have liked to ask him so many things, like where he came from and how he couldn't know all this - even though she wasn't really sure about the not knowing part. He had asked her obvious questions, that was true, but even though he acted surprised at her answers, he never seemed to really be surprised at all. It was like he had been able to predict her answers, and really just wanted to know whether he had been right about his prediction.  
Joanita was just about to pass the order, when she saw through the window that the man was getting up again, turning, and walking away from the café. She frowned, feeling how tears of real dismay and disappointment made their way to her eyes. How could he just leave now, when there was so much she wanted to ask him? She cursed being emotional.  
She spent her entire day thinking about him and, no matter how hard she tried, he wouldn't leave her mind. Not for one second even. "So, that's how it feels to experience something uncommon." She murmured to herself, continuing the work she had always hated. "You'll stay stuck with your old life, but unable to focus on it any longer. Great!" She kept that thought in her head, dwelling on it the rest of the day, becoming unhappier with every second.  
When in the afternoon her work was over, she grabbed her hand bag, and without saying goodbye, just headed off home. She hated it on this base, she hated all about the boredom, the people, the normativity, the beauty standards, the cafés, everything! She kept on clinging to these thoughts and even the shower that was supposed to relax her, didn't do warm water on this day. "Stupid life!" She shouted out loud and wrapped herself in a towel after an ice cold half shower, and headed towards the door, thinking about how miserable her life would continue to be, and how she would never see the mysterious man again.  
She was left in that belief until she opened her bathroom door and stepped into her living room.  
Faced towards the wall next to her bookshelf, stood the man she'd seen in the café, and seemingly scanned the concrete with a device that vaguely resembled a screwdriver. It made the same noise that she had heard this noon when she had pointed out the fish soup to him. Joanita screamed in shock and hastily grabbed a cushion from the sofa to hit him with if necessary, for the lack of anything else that could be used this way, while she held the towel that was wrapped around her tightly with the other hand. "What are you doing here?" She called loudly as the man spun around and faced her. He seemed to consider a moment before he spoke, a slight frown building on his forehead. "Something's been going on on this base and I am here to investigate it." He smiled his stunning, wide smile at her and for one moment she almost forgot that he was an intruder in her flat. "Then… how did you get in?" She tried to regain her composure and made sure her voice didn't tremble. No matter how good he looked, no matter how fascinating he was, he still could be some kind of interplanetary murderer or something. The man turned again and grinned at her for a moment. "Scanned your flat card." He replied casually, and she felt the urge to slap him. Not for the last time on this day, as she would find out quite soon. "So that was the bleeping!" He grinned again, and slowly it started to drive her insane. "Oh, so you did notice something. Good job of covering it up. I really thought you didn't notice."  
"Why the hell are you in my living room?" Joanita yelled now. Her brain was running over with new and confusing information, and the constant beeping caused by the device in the man's hand didn't really help either.  
"The signals are strongly increasing around here. The source must be incredibly close."   
Now he even started to say things that didn't even remotely make sense. "What source?" She asked, because it was the first thing that came to her mind. And she had to say something. Make sense of it all somehow.  
"Of the signals." The man looked flabbergasted, as if he thought her to be unbelievably stupid. 'He was the one who asked whether we have fish, so who's he to judge?' She thought, and rolled her eyes in pretend annoyance.  
"Yeah, well, I've been so far." She then claimed. "What kind of signals?"   
"I'm not sure yet." Joanita sighed, thinking he should know at least what he was looking for if he broke into her flat while she were in the shower. Suddenly she became painfully aware of the fact that she still was only wearing a towel. "Would you mind at least letting me get dressed?" By now Joanita had decided that the man probably wasn't going to do anything harmful to her, so she relaxed a bit. She had literally been standing before him, wrapped in a towel armed with a pillow, and he had been more interested in resonating concrete. "Yes, sure." The man turned around to face the wall, continuing the bleeping and searching. Joanita sighed again. "Whoever you are, you're impossible." She mumbled and grabbed a few clothes of a pile on her couch, then disappeared into the bathroom.  
The apartments on the base had only two rooms. A bathroom and a big room with a bed, living part, and kitchen. Joanita had never understood it, then again, it was base 666 and nothing really made sense around here anyway.   
Joanita stepped back out of the bathroom, now wearing plain leggings and a T-shirt, her hair tied back into a loose ponytail, and examined the man once more. His spiked up hair was so twenty-first century! "Okay, so, what exactly is the plan?" She asked then, deciding that there had to be a plan for whatever the man was doing here. "We need to find out what is sending the signal and for what purpose." He said, sounding as if he expected her to understand immediately what he was trying to imply by that. She didn't. "Meaning…?" She responded and walked a bit closer, leaning against the sofa. "We need to get a look behind this wall." The man sounded casual and she was really dazed by that fact, which made her reaction really slow. This, and the fact that she really didn't expect the man to grab a chair and take a hard swing at the wall. Usually, she should have been able to jump up, slap him, and tell him to get out of her flat, but she just stood there in shock. Usually the wall should have been able to resist too, but it just crumbled under the impact of the chair's metal legs. Joanita's mouth stood open in sheer horror and surprise. "You tore a hole in my wall." Was all she managed to get out. "Just like I guessed." She heard the man murmur as he bowed closer to the hole to examine it closely. "What the… WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?" Joanita called out and stood up straight, her entire body flexed. "You can't just turn up and punch holes in my wall! Who the hell are you even?" She basically screamed, ready to get at him whenever he made a wrong move. He turned slightly and looked at her, finally acknowledging her presence. "I'm the Doctor." He said and gave a slight smile. Joanita really wanted to remark something snarky about his introduction, when his look turned to worry. "And this is bad. This is really really bad." He stated in a low voice, then he spun around entirely. "What's your name?" He asked and for a moment she was confused by the rather sudden jumps between topics. Her brain couldn't get the fact sorted that a stranger had just intruded her flat while she had been in the shower, having scanned her flat key with a screwdriver, seen her merely wrapped in a towel and had smashed a hole her wall a few seconds later, with a chair, which definitely shouldn't be possible, and they hadn't even been properly introduced by then. She was struggling whether she should think all this to be a dream or not. "I'm Joanita. Joanita Terha-Utaj." She said slowly and he smiled the wide smile she had already seen for about five times today. "That's a nice name, Joanita Terha-Utaj. Hello, great to meet you."  
Her senses told her to throw the man out, to scream at him to get out. To finally do the only reasonable thing and call the police, but her curiosity got the better of her.  
"So, what's bad?" She asked instead.  
"You probably know about the Ossoisiclinia." From the man's - the Doctor's mouth this word, whatever it was sounded like a simple fact. She had never heard it before. "No?" She said, trying to push the fault away from her by phrasing it as a question. Should have been obvious to him that she didn't know. Wasn't her fault.  
"Well, anyway, they're having their larvae in your wall…" Again the Doctor managed to make something so weird and extraordinary sound like a usual fact. She wondered how often he had to deal with stuff like that, that all of it seemed almost factual for him. At first Joanita wanted to laugh at his statement, It had to have been a joke, hadn't it? There were no weird alien things around here, were there?, but the Doctor kept on looking extremely serious.   
"Y-you mean like… wood maggots just in… concrete?" She asked as she took one step away. Whether it was from the wall or the Doctor she didn't know this moment.  
"Yes, that's quite an accurate description. Thank you." If the Doctor was worried he most definitely made a good job in hiding it.  
"But they can't get in here, can they?" Joanita's eyes were wide in fearful hope, and the Doctor looked at her and tilted his head. "Well…" He started. He looked like he was going to tell her something unpleasant and Joanita felt a lump forming in her throat. "Technically they can. But they are only awake in the night, so you've got nothing to worry about." She wanted to take a relieved breath, but the tension indicated that he had just paused and not finished his sentence. "For now."  
These two words snapped Joanita back to reality. She remembered her life, her work, and was suddenly painfully aware of the curfew laws.  
"I can't get out of here after sunset." Joanita informed him, frantically trying to stay calm. "The curfew is incredibly strict." The Doctor nodded, his worry peeking through by now. "I know. We'll figure something out. First of all, are these doors Ossoisiclinia proof?" Joanita huffed out a breath. How should she know? "Well I hope so. Otherwise they'll kill everyone, won't they?" She said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, but was taken aback when the Doctor's voice rose. "Are they proof?" He called loudly and Joanita considered for a moment, then nodded her head, slowly. "Well, that won't help your walls, but at least it could save some other people." The Doctor hurried to get out, obviously thinking really hard about a solution. "What about the bathroom doors?" He finally asked. Joanita shook her head in rushed consideration. "I don't know." She said, tears painfully close. Emotions! The Doctor threw her an angry glare, as if to say 'You need to know and you need to care because otherwise you're going to die and there's nothing I could do about it!', all with one look of his eye. It scared her so badly. She hurried to add, "They should be. It's very likely they are."  
"Brilliant." The Doctor smiled and called out. "Allons-y!" She had no idea what it meant, but thought it to be quite self-explanatory when he started ushering her out of her flat.


	3. Chapter 2

The next thing Joanita knew, is that they were running, yelling for everyone to lock themselves into their flats, recommending bathrooms for additional safety. The Doctor had hurriedly explained his plan, which pretty much consisted of starting a panic and making everyone lock themselves in.  
"The Ossoisiclinia broke through!" He yelled, and Joanita gave him a look. "They won't understand a word, Doctor. You can't just throw weird names around and expect everyone to get it." He looked down a bit guiltily. "Ah sorry, my mistake." He muttered, then continued. "The aliens are coming!" Now Joanita joined in. "Pass the word, save yourselves!"  
At first people gave them odd looks, that was when Joanita realised that she wasn't wearing shoes, but the louder and panicky her calls became, the more people listened to her and started shouting as well.  
Joanita stopped, panting, and the Doctor spun around to face her, grinning. "That went quite well, didn't it?" She asked and he raised his eyebrows. "Oh, we're not done yet. We've got a few more places, and a few more hours to go. Well, three to be exact. Well, two and a half if you want to be at home in time." Joanita looked at him in shock and shook her head. "I can't, Doctor, I can't. My throat is hoarse and my lungs are dying for air, and you want me to run and yell even more? Why can't we stop? The word will spread on its own. We've done it." The Doctor looked at her in compassion, then gently placed his hands on her shoulders and looked at her. "Joanita, you're incredibly brave. Please, don't give up now. These people need you. And you know they do. Don't let them down"  
Joanita swallowed. Somehow disappointing the Doctor seemed like the worst thing she could possibly imagine right now. Forget about aliens who want to kill everyone, forget about her friends, about her people. The Doctor's approval was everything that counted. And she felt terrible for feeling that way. She noticed tears starting to form in her eyes, but she blinked them away, not wanting to appear weak in front of him. How pathetic, she thought, you don't even know him. You have absolutely no responsibility towards him or anyone but yourself. "I won't give up, Doctor." She heard herself say. "Promised. Never." He smiled at her and for one moment she felt pleased with herself, then he turned around and continued running. She faintly heard him calling, "We'll meet at your place at dusk! Don't stop!"   
And the running continued, the screaming and shouting around her increased, her head started to spin, but she managed to go on. She needed to go on. She knew that.   
When she finally found the time to glance on a watch, she noticed how little time three hours actually were. She started running towards home, the countdown to dusk being set to ten minutes. She was dazed, only seeing, not feeling anymore. Of course she noticed the walls flying by. She also noticed when they didn't anymore and she lay face down on the floor. She had slipped on the stone floor, her socks not giving her the needed hold, and slammed her ankle against a corner. She yelled a desperate cry of frustration, not pain, when she staggered forward again, but the result of foot on speed versus concrete was a slight immobility of her ankle, which impacted how fast she would get to her flat. She didn't have much time left. She fell again. Seven more minutes and the door would have sealed itself. Impossible for humans to get through, but not for the aliens, who were simply going to break through the wall. Hastily she tried pushing herself up and limped on, making sure she wouldn't have to stop for anything else. She couldn't fall again. She knew that it was a matter of seconds if she would live, or die.  
Slowly, threateningly, the pain tried to catch up with her, but she pushed it away, forcing herself to go on, an imaginary clock ticking in her head.  
She got to her flat just in time, the last second ticking off in the moment she closed the door behind her. Joanita slumped against the wall and buried her face in her hands. The numbness left her and she felt. She felt the pain in her ankle. She felt the cruelly harsh beat of her heart wanting to burst through her chest. She felt the adrenaline fading and her head spinning. And she felt guilt. She felt so guilty for not having noticed anything earlier and for not being able to do anything more. She felt guilty because everything she'd done was because of the Doctor. She would have locked herself in her bathroom, leaving everyone else to their fate. But the Doctor, he had gone out there, even though he knew no one around here. He had saved as many lives as he could, and she had been so busy saving herself that she didn't even know whether he had made it back here. That was when she heard a screech, followed by a call and a hand grabbing hers firmly, jerking her to her feet, and pulling her sideways rather harshly. She still was too dazed to really notice anything but the chest she had staggered against, and the arm wrapping around her waist, then she heard something crash against her wall. "Come on!" The Doctor called impatiently, worriedly, and pulled her inside the bathroom, slightly pushing her aside to frantically slam the door shut. She could barely catch a glimpse of a tentacled being with very bony arms that was trying to get up after having smashed a carve in the wall.  
Her ragged breathing just started to slow down, the newly stirred up adrenaline fading away again (she was almost sure so much adrenaline couldn't be healthy), when the Doctor suddenly spun around and yelled. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!" The shock he got when he had seen the alien approach Joanita was still obvious in his eyes, and even though the Doctor most definitely wasn't a really intimidating man overall - he was really slim, had big eyes, and wore a smile most of the time -, when he was angry, he looked like he could take entire worlds down. Which he had in fact done before. And now he was angry. And he was scared. And that was definitely not a good combination if you were locked into a room with him.   
"I… I'm sorry." Joanita stammered and tears shot in her eyes as she tried to back a step away, but flinched when her weight shifted to her stained ankle. "I didn't… I didn't think." The Doctor nodded, obviously trying to stay calm after he had noticed her limp. "I know, I noticed that." He said, less snappy but still obviously unsettled. "You really need to pay more attention to your surroundings. That was the third time today that you were caught off guard."   
"Well, I-I'm sorry. Th-there's just r-really nothing going o-on around h-here usually. I-I never have t-to watch o-out." She brought out between choked sobs. The Doctor swallowed. "I'm sorry." He murmured, the concern now obvious is his eyes. "I'm so sorry." He didn't say what for, but it sounded like he tried to apologize for every bit of sadness and harm in this and every other universe. "How's your ankle?" He asked after a while of just standing there and not looking at each other, and Joanita felt her heart leap at the knowledge that he'd noticed. She shook her head. "I don't know. I… I haven't looked at it yet." She said, careful not to upset him again. Slowly the Doctor walked over to her. "Sit down." He half ordered and helped her to ease herself down on the floor. Joanita rolled up her trouser's leg and gasped at the sight of her foot. It had already started to bruise and she could see the concern on the Doctor's face more obvious than ever before. "What is it?" She asked and the Doctor looked at her. "We're going to have to do a lot more running tomorrow, and it won't work that way, will it?" He said, trying to mask his worry with a sheepish grin. Joanita huffed out a chuckle. "You're going to have to carry me then." She joked and leaned back against the cold stone wall.  
The Doctor nodded and ran a hand through his hair, that was a bit damp by now and not as spiky as it had been when they first met.  
"Who are you?" Joanita was as surprised by asking this question as the Doctor was by hearing it. He looked at her in mock confusion. "I told you, I'm the Doctor." He said and Joanita scoffed. "That's not very much of an explanation." When he maintained silence, she decided to go down another route. "So, you're definitely not from around here, that much is obvious." She said and the Doctor smiled slightly. "No I'm not." She rolled her eyes. "So, where are you from?" She asked boringly. "Wouldn't tell you much." He replied and she heaved out a sigh. "So how'd you get in here?" She now asked, thinking maybe she'd find something out this way, but he merely shrugged. "In my ship." Joanita gave him an annoyed look. "You're such a knob!" She stated and he chuckled slightly. "How did you get in? Like in, you would have been noticed on radar. I mean, your ship can't just… appear somewhere." The Doctor grinned widely. "Actually it can." He stated and she looked at him in bedazzlement. "Oh, you're no use." She then stated and leaned back again. He grinned once more and continued. "It's a spaceship. More accurately it travels in space and time. It's really technically advanced and reliable." He paused and frowned in thought, then continued his excited ramble. "Well, most of the time. Well, at least some of it. It's got a bit of a head of its own, which is why I end up where I do. Well, and maybe because I threw the manual in a supernovae, but that's not the point." Joanita had a hard time following his trail of thoughts, but in the end she had picked up a thing or two. Mainly that the Doctor seemed to really love his ship. And there was another thing... "So, you're from the future then? I mean, we can't time-travel yet." The Doctor shrugged. "Sort of, I guess. Depends on your interpretation of it." Joanita decided to ignore his last response. "And you travel a lot?"  
He nodded.  
"How does your ship look?" Joanita was not going to stop asking now. She wanted to know every last thing about that ship. And about time travel. And, if she was honest with herself, about the Doctor.   
"It's… uhm…" He seemed to consider what to reply for a moment, as if about to say something extremely stupid. "It's… It's hard to describe, really. I… I can show it to you when all this is over, if you want. I've parked it somewhere close to your work I believe."  
Joanita beamed widely and she almost would have hugged the Doctor. Almost.   
"Yes, I'd love to. But… How do we even get out of this? I will totally get arrested for letting these things in. And for causing a riot. And so will you. You're not registered here, are you? And there are still aliens out there who want to eat all of us. What are they anyway?"  
The Doctor nodded, and beamed back at her. "You're asking the right questions, Joanita Terha-Utaj. Let's start with your last point. The Ossoisiclinia. Well, they don't belong here. They usually live off carcasses that float around in space. They're the vultures of outer space, so to say. But somehow they must have got locked into your atmosphere."  
"So, what can we do to get them out?"  
Joanita looked at the Doctor expectantly. He merely shook his head, looking sad. Almost disappointed in himself.  
"There's the problem. We can't. Usually they are harmless, small, not harming a fly. But once they start feeding off of living beings, they consume their energy. They grow stronger, more powerful. These ones want to get out of here, back to their usual life, back to what's good for them, but to do that they need energy. They are going to eat everything and anyone on this base, just so they can manage to escape. I'm afraid, all you can do is evacuate."  
Joanita's eyes went wide and again tears threatened to spill. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just stop being so stupidly emotional? "And there is really nothing else we could do? We-" She took a deep breath, then continued in a determined voice. "We can't just abandon our home. I won't let that happen."  
"You have to." The Doctor's eyes looked pleading. "There is no other way. I'm sorry, Joanita. I'm so sorry, but I can't change it. If I find anything I can do to help you, I will set everything in my power to it, I promise. But right now there's nothing I can do."  
Joanita stared at him, not knowing whether to be angry at him, or just start crying. "Why can't we try together? Why would you have to do it alone? Why you?" Joanita sounded more desperate than ever, and when she met the Doctor's eyes she saw genuine sorrow in it, mixed with something she couldn't quite decipher yet. Some sort of… age… She couldn't find a better word to phrase it.  
"Because I am your only chance." He finally said, and despite the fact that she actually believed him, that she knew that what he had just said was true, Joanita scoffed. "Excuse me, Sir, but you are not more authorized or fit than any of us others. And this… bleeping pen of yours won't help either"  
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and she could have slapped him for his smugness, for his stupid way of thinking himself above everybody else. "First, the 'bleeping pen' is a sonic screwdriver." He grinned and Joanita almost lost it that time, but held herself back once more. "It is incredibly good at opening doors. Well, so long as they're not made of wood. Second, I am not exactly authorized but definitely more fit for everything that's going on around here than any of the humans on this base."  
Joanita frowned slightly, and the Doctor stared at her. "What?" He asked in serious confusion. "What is it? Did I say something weird?"  
"I don't know. Just… You said humans… Does that mean you're…?"  
A look of realization spread on his face and the Doctor mouthed a big "Oh" before he nodded. "Yes. I'm not human. I am a Time Lord. Extraterrestrial." He smiled reassuringly. "Is that alright with you?"  
Joanita nodded slightly, slowly, insecurely, then she took a breath. "But you look… you look human." She said, and the Doctor grinned again. "That is where you're wrong." He said teasingly, and she was taken aback for a moment. Then she got what he meant. "Oh, you mean, we…"   
The Doctor grinned approvingly. "You look Time Lord." And Joanita laughed slightly.  
After her laugh had died down they sat in silence listening to the sounds of things getting smashed, the constant screeching of the Ossoisiclinia, the occasional yell of someone who didn't lock themselves like the Doctor and Joanita had told them to. Somewhere in a room down the hall a child was crying.   
"I really hope it's safe." Joanita mumbled and looked at the Doctor. He took her hand to comfort her and looked at her, but he didn't reply. When the crying became louder and abruptly stopped a few seconds later, he gave her hand a squeeze and Joanita shut her eyes. She tried to block everything out, everything that happened, and had happened today. She tried to convince herself that all of this was a dream, that the hand that held hers would vanish if she would just shut her eyes long enough. That she would find herself having slipped in the shower and would wake up in a hospital. But nothing like that happened. Instead, he just heard the Doctor whisper. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."  
Again, there was silence. The aliens were now too far away to hear them any longer, and everything that could be heard for a few minutes were Joanita's silent sobs. The Doctor tried to sooth her by rubbing small circles on her back, but it didn't do much. After she stopped crying the Doctor withdrew his hand and they sat there, not actively acknowledging the other one's presence.  
"Do you have family?" Joanita finally asked, weakly, her voice broken, and the Doctor shook his head, looking as sad as she felt. "No." He said softly, then paused for a moment, as if there was more to come, but elaborated nothing more. "You?"  
Joanita shrugged. "No. Not really." She took a shaky breath, and just stared at the wall in front of her, almost as if she was afraid to look at him, as if looking at him would make him disappear and leave her all alone in the world. "My parents are both dead. My brother married and moved away. Base 594 I think. I don't hear much of him anymore. And my partner broke up with me a few weeks ago. They were… I don't know. Fed up with my lifestyle I guess." She smiled slightly to cover up a sob and again, felt the Doctor's hand comfortingly on her back. This finally gave her the courage to turn her head. "Do you have someone to travel with? A partner, a friend?" She felt silly for asking so many personal questions, but right now she couldn't think of anything else.  
The Doctor shook his head again. True pain was hidden behind his eyes, but his face showed no expression. "There was someone once. But I… I lost her."  
"I'm sorry." She couldn't think of any more to say and she didn't have to. Because she knew how it felt to lose someone dear, and these two words were everything the Doctor needed to feel her compassion.  
Again, silence crept around them. Joanita leaned against the wall and stared at the wall on the other side of the room, already tired but afraid of the dreams that seemed almost inevitable after a day like this one. The noises returned, sometimes closer, sometimes further away, and there was no sign of them actually stopping. After another half hour of silence, Joanita finally decided to close her eyes and try to think of something good. Of something that would let her sleep, at least for a few hours. "Good night, Doctor." She mumbled and despite the rattling outside and the fact that the wall she was leaning against was cold and hard, she dozed off in a matter of seconds.  
"Good night." The Doctor whispered, lost in thoughts of his own. He stared up at the ceiling, his mind racing, but he couldn't bring himself to close his eyes.


	4. Chapter 3

Joanita woke up and stretched, her entire body aching as she pushed herself up from the hard ground. The noises were gone. That was the first thing she noticed. The second thing she noticed was that she was wrapped in a long, brown coat. The Doctor had worn it the day before. The Doctor! She jumped up, but almost fell when she shifted her weight to her still incredibly sore ankle.  
"Slow down." She heard a voice behind her say, and she staggered around, losing balance, and the Doctor hurried to steady her. "Good morning." He greeted her, and she pulled away from him, shaking off his hands that had a grip on her elbow to make sure she didn't fall. "Hello." She greeted back, her tone slightly sour. She wasn't in the mood for being polite. She had hoped that she'd wake up and the Doctor and all the horrors would be gone, and somehow was angry that he was still there, even though technically it wasn't his fault that he wouldn't disappear. The child's sobs from the evening before were still echoing in Joanita's head. She wondered whether the Doctor had been able to sleep.  
"What time is it?" She asked as he bowed down to pick up his coat that had dropped on the floor when Joanita had got up.  
"It's an hour past sunrise." He said in a soft, reassuring voice. "The Ossoisiclinia are all gone."  
"That's good, right?" Joanita wasn't sure about anything anymore. She couldn't believe that any of this had actually happened.  
The Doctor nodded slightly. "Yes. Yes it is. Now we just need to figure out a way to get everyone out of here before sunset."  
"So, how do we do that?"  
The Doctor frowned. "Well, I'm sure we'll think of something. Come on."  
The Doctor opened the door and was out before Joanita even managed to take one step. She hurried after him as best as she could, but they didn't get very far. She was just about to catch up with him, when two guards appeared in the doorway of her flat, holding firearms. "Identify yourself." One of them snarled and the Doctor came to an abrupt hold. He cleared his throat and Joanita stepped in. "I am Joanita Terha-Utaj. I am currently waiting at the Yrghall Café in the mall. And this… is…"-"Smith. John Smith. I'm really just passing by." The lie sounded so perfect, Joanita wondered how much of what he'd told her was actually true.  
"Do you know this man?" The other guard inquired and Joanita gulped. "Yes. I mean… actually…"  
"We only just met." The Doctor stated, hastily, quickly. He should stick to lying, Joanita thought, he's better at making it sound real than when he actually tells the truth. "She's got nothing to do with all this." He continued and the officer looked at him in disbelief.  
"You caused a riot." The first officer accused, and the Doctor snarled, making a step towards the officers. "We saved these people's lives!" He thundered and Joanita could see the fear on the policemen's faces.  
"Don't move!" The second officer yelled and raised his weapon threateningly.  
"This is all a misunderstanding…" Joanita tried, but was cut off by the first officer again.  
"Joanita Terha-Utaj and John Smith, you are arrested for disturbing the night rest and causing a riot."  
"You can't possibly mean that!" The Doctor protested. "We weren't the ones who attacked innocent people. We protected them."  
"Tell that to the governor."   
The Doctor was visibly boiling with anger when one of the officers took a step towards him. He looked like he wasn't going to let them take him peacefully. And Joanita was right with thinking that. "Don't you dare touch either of us!" He exclaimed when the smaller of the two officers reached out to shackle him. The Doctor drew his arm back, to escape the man's touch, and the officer raised his gun again. "If you don't cooperate you will be taken with violence."  
If looks could kill, both of the officers would have dropped dead in an instant. "Leave her alone." He said, glancing over to Joanita, who had already been shackled and was ready to be brought to the next higher authority. "She didn't have anything to do with it." He insisted, and once more the smaller officer tried to reach out for him, but the Doctor drew back again. Then everything happened too fast for Joanita to keep track. The Doctor grabbed the officer's gun, trying to wind it out of his hand, but it took him a second too long, and just as he was about to stand back and point it at the man, a taser was produced out of the policeman's jacket, there was a zap, and the Doctor collapsed to his knees, holding his ribs and breathing raggedly. "Doctor!" Joanita called out in shock, and if it wouldn't have been for the policeman holding onto her, and the fact that her hands were bound, she would have been there to comfort the strange man in under a second.  
"I warned you!" The officer growled and made a new attempt to get hold of him. The Doctor tried to fight back again, but the officer violently twisted his arms on his back. The Doctor winced as he was shackled and the officer grabbed his upper arm to drag him onto his feet. Joanita's eyes were fixed on the scene in sheer horror. "You didn't have to hurt him." She choked out. "He didn't do anything." The officer didn't respond in indifferent fulfillment of duty, and the Doctor gave her a look that said "I am going to get us out. Whatever it takes." Joanita was really afraid that she would start to cry again.  
The officers shoved them into a room and stood them in front of a desk. "I assume you're the principal, who will judge us as inobedient school children?" The Doctor asked the beautiful middle aged woman who sat behind it. She had her rich, black hair curled around her shoulders which complemented her shiny, dark skin perfectly, and the intelligent gleam in her golden eyes made her look superior. Joanita was impressed how snarky the Doctor was still able to be in the presence of such a magnificent person. "You are the Doctor." She stated and the Doctor narrowed his eyes. "How'd you know?" He asked, his voice suddenly sounding deep and considerate. "You are a time traveller, an ancient Time Lord, the last one of your kind." The Doctor merely stared at her and Joanita gasped. The last one of his kind? No wonder he seemed so lonely. "You came to save us."  
"That's right." He said darkly, staring sideways at the policeman that was still holding him. "I have always been protecting humanity. I've never let you down. But that's not the reason I am here, as you probably know. I've got a signal. A strong one. And not from you."  
The woman nodded. "Yes, you have. It was sent by the Ossoisiclinia. Their larvae wanted to be set free."  
The Doctor's eyes widened. "You knew about them!" He yelled. "You knew about them and you did nothing to stop them."  
"And you, Doctor, helped them." The governess smiled smugly, and the Doctor's blood started boiling with rage.  
"By accident!" He stated firmly, and the woman nodded again. "Yes. We have supervised your every step since you've landed, Doctor. We know what you've done and what you haven't. We know your intentions. They are of good-hearted nature."   
"Good-hearted." The Doctor scoffed, but then decided to hold his annoyance back. What choice did he have anyway? "So, what do you want me to do? Shackled up like this?"  
"We want to trade with them."  
The Doctor frowned and chuckled in disbelief. "Excuse me, you want to do what?" He made it sound like it was the most stupid idea he'd ever heard.  
"They need energy to make their escape out of our atmosphere. We knew they were going to merge out of the walls at some point. And so we needed to come up with a plan against them destroying our base. We put a tracer in a wall that would draw all the larvae to it. This would make you get a signal. And of course, you would come to humanities rescue once more. Wouldn't you?"  
Slight fear started to rise in the Doctor as he started to get her point. Joanita on the other hand, found herself lured by the governess's voice, feeling sleepy and so full of trust, but snapped back to reality when she heard the Doctor speak again.  
"So, you made them call me here? And there was purpose behind it. You didn't want me to save you, you wanted to save yourselves by trading my TARDIS to the Ossoisiclinia. Oh, that's very clever. Only that you'll never manage it. You won't ever get inside it."  
The woman smiled sweetly. "Oh, Doctor, you're so close and yet so wrong." Her face turned dark in an instance. "No. We want to trade you. The energy of a Timelord, who hasn't yet used up all his regenerations. Can you imagine how much they will feast on your regeneration energy? They will boast. They will escape and they will leave us alone."  
The Doctor swallowed. "You're wrong." He said firmly. "Yes, they will boast, and yes, they will escape, but first, they will kill you all. You won't stand a chance. Believe me!" His voice rose with every word and be looked about to tear away from the officer and start some stupid escape plan, when a new, soft, almost lovely voice joined the conversation.  
"Don't listen to him."  
The Doctor froze as he noticed the figure that stood in the shadow. The silhouette seemed oddly familiar. But it couldn't be. Could it?  
"He lies. He always lies. Don't believe a word he says."  
The Doctor's eyes widened and swallowed heavily. "Whoever you are, whatever you want from me, don't… don't do it in this form. Please."  
The person laughed and emerged from the shadows. Her cheekbones protruded sharply in the swallowing dark, and her big, brown eyes gleamed darker than the last time the Doctor had seen her, almost evilly. Her blonde hair was tied up into a messy bun and she showed her big front teeth in a wide smile. But this smile wasn't warm or welcoming. It was a triumphant smile. A hateful one.  
"Rose." The Doctor choked out. It had only been a few days for him since he'd left her back at Bad Wolf Bay. He had met this other woman, Donna, and after she'd declined to come along with him, he'd come straight to this point. And it hurt so much to see her. He wanted to reach out to her, to hug her, and he might have actually forgotten himself and done it, totally ignoring the fact that none of this could be real, if it hadn't been for the shackles that were holding his hands on his back, and the man, whos tight grip on his upper arm would most definitely leave a bruise.  
"Hello Doctor." Even the voice was so real… the Doctor cursed himself for considering that it could actually be her. "It's so good to see you again." She said and took the final step out of the shadows. "Did you miss me?"  
The Doctor felt nausea rise up in him, something he hadn't felt for ages. He felt anger, and rage, and sadness and love and… somewhere deep down he found a hint of denial. He hated denial.  
"Who are you? How did you find out about Rose? Why do you impersonate her?"  
Rose -no, the person impersonating Rose- grinned. "Questions above questions. But you could answer all of them by yourself, couldn't you?"  
He knew he could if he tried. But, he didn't know whether he wanted to. "Why do you want to destroy this civilization?"  
The being laughed. "Another question you could answer all on your own. Really, Doctor, you disappoint me."  
The Doctor could have cried. He could have screamed and struggled, he could have fought the men off and kicked the false Rose to a pulp - or he could have run towards her and held her and never let go of her ever again. But instead he smiled. "Oh, I hardly think that. I think I confuse you. I always did, didn't I?"   
"Doctor? Do you know her?" This was Joanita. She had seen all the Doctor's thoughts pass over his face in a fraction of a second, and she wanted him to know that he wasn't alone. Something inside her told her that this was important.   
"No, I don't." She heard him answer, somewhat distant. "Well, I do. But that's not actually Rose. I still do know them. So… actually, yes."  
Joanita sighed. Why had she ever expected a clear answer?  
"And I, dear governess, am going to prove this person's true identity!"  
"Enough!" The governess exclaimed sternly and rose to her feet. "Doctor, this woman is a friend. She lives here longer than I do. She helped us and you, Doctor, endangered all of us and caused a riot. So, who is the one I should believe?"  
The false Rose smiled triumphantly, and the Doctor scowled angrily. "I saved these people's lives! I am trying to help you!" He shouted, true desperation showing in his voice.  
"You were the one to endanger them in the first place."  
The governess's tone was cold and the Doctor shook his head frantically. "No. No I was not. I accidentally sped up the process of letting them in, but they would have come anyway."  
Joanita nodded, feeling like she should support him in some way. "He's saying the truth!" She tried to sound fierce, but her shaking voice betrayed her panic. "They were in my wall and-"   
"So you were part of the conspiracy?" The false Rose asked and tilted her head. "I thought you didn't have anything to do with this?"  
The Doctor snorted. "Conspiracy? Excuse me, but-"   
"SILENCE!" Thundered the governess and Joanita winced slightly. The Doctor was already scary when he was mad, but this reached a whole new level. "You, Doctor, lied when you claimed she wasn't involved. So, can we assume you know each other?"  
"No!" Said the Doctor. "Not very good." Said Joanita at the same time. The false Rose smirked. "Oh, they do know each other. First rule: The Doctor lies."  
"Incarcerate them."  
Joanita felt panic rise up. "What? No! No, you can't." She started to struggle against her captor, but the Doctor shook his head.   
"Don't." He said softly and for some reason this made her feel safe enough to stop. Somehow she knew that everything was going to turn out fine as long as the Doctor was around. At least she hoped that.  
The shackles were removed and the Doctor and Joanita were shoved into a cell. The Doctor reached out to Joanita to help her keep balance again. "You didn't have to push her like that!" He exclaimed, but the guard just laughed at him.  
The false Rose now walked into the cell as well. "I need to talk to the prisoners." She said firmly, the guard nodded and the door was shut. There was a smirk on Rose's face and the Doctor glared at her angrily.  
"Oh, Doctor, you always get yourself into trouble, don't you?"  
"Usually it's people like you who get me in it. But go ahead." He replied grimly, one hand buried in his coat pocket, clenched to a fist.  
"You made the prison guard take my screwdriver, didn't you? He wouldn't even have known what it was."  
Rose grinned. "That's correct."  
"You picked Rose's body to gain as much power as possible about me. And, possibly, because she was the only being aside from me, you studied well enough to permanently become."  
"Correct again. Doctor, you have a run."  
"I can't stand the fact that you're using this body. Will you please change to your real form?"  
"No."  
"Why not?" These last two words had sounded so provocative, Joanita just knew he was only playing this being. That, or he wanted the being to think that he still had the high ground. The second thought worried her.  
Rose's tongue peaked out between her teeth, like it had done so often when it had really been her, and the Doctor needed all his composure not to freak out.  
"Now, Doctor, why am I doing this?"  
"Because you want to have power over me. Which quite frankly doesn't work." Again this provocative tone. It had to have some use, didn't it?  
"Why do I want to, Doctor?"  
The false Rose came dangerously close to him, slowly, almost gently, brushing her hand through his hair.  
"You really want me to say it?" The Doctor's hand stayed in his pocket. His face didn't betray any emotion as he continued. "You want me to tell you why you're doing this? Not too hard to figure out really. Revenge." He didn't approach the being in any way, his voice stern and steady and he wasn't responding to any of the physical aspects of this conversation either. On the other hand he also made absolutely no attempt to push it away. Joanita wondered whether he was still playing the being, if it was pride that kept him from doing it - or if he enjoyed her hand in his hair.  
The false Rose giggled slightly and gave a very sweet smile. "Oh, Doctor, you're so oblivious." Her gaze darkened ever so slightly as she inches even closer to the Time Lord. "No, Doctor, I want you-" She paused her hissed suggestion at this point to press a kiss to his lips. A tender, soft kiss, but Joanita could see the hunger that she put into it. The Doctor didn't kiss back, but also didn't protest. Again, he remained standing there, statue-like, ignoring their closeness entirely. He waited patiently for the false Rose to break the contact again. After a while, that lingered too long for Joanita not to cringe, she backed off only so far that her lips still brushed his whenever she moved her mouth. "I want you to explain every single detail. I want you to unveil your true being to the little friend you picked up."  
"Why?" Was all the Doctor said, probably a bitter tone in his voice. No hitched breathing, no blush, no fiddling with his hands betraying the fact that all he wished for in this moment was for the person standing before him to be the real Rose. "So that you can pretend to be the victim, again? I know what you're playing. I know that you won't do anything to either of us. Not because you don't want to, but because you can't! And you know that as well as I do." The false Rose stepped back and smiled sweetly. "Oh Doctor, but why couldn't I?"  
His voice remained steady. "Because it would blow your cover, we would get set free, and you would be the one to remain on this base when it gets ripped apart."  
Rose seemed shocked, but Joanita knew that it was just pretense. "But, Doctor, don't you love me? Your Rose Tyler?" She teased and the Doctor's glare darkened.   
"No."  
The being laughed throatily and approached the Doctor again, her eyes seeming to shoot hateful fire. "I wonder. If you let me kiss you, which you did, would you also let me do this-?" The false Rose drew her hand back, aiming to slap the Doctor, but his reflexes were fast, and that combined with the fact that for the being hitting someone that way was an unusual motion and that he had expected this gesture to come, the Time Lord managed to catch her wrist mid-air. In less than a second he had twisted Rose's - no, the being's- arm on its back and held it in place in a firm grip. "No!" He repeated darkly. "I wouldn't." The being tried to get out of his grasp, but a human body didn't stand a chance against a Time Lord. This realization sent a shiver through the false Rose, who started to struggle harder, baring her teeth. Though, not human teeth anymore. They were pointy, they were sharp, and they were just the start. Suddenly the being tore away and spun around. Where Rose Tyler had stood a second ago, there now was a red alien that looked a bit like a starfish. Well, a scary starfish with pointy teeth.  
"I knew it." Said the Doctor while resuming his passive pose, though one could tell that he was still tense, a somewhat triumphant look grazing his features. "I knew you were the one setting us up!"  
"Why didn't you say it then?" Asked the Zygon in a voice that didn't even sound remotely like before. Everything soft about it was gone, everything human about it had vanished, and what was left was a rough, snaring tone that could somehow form vowels and consonants. It added a lot to the fear Joanita felt.  
"I had to be sure. I guessed it all along, but I needed to be sure. Which I am now." The Doctor smiled at nobody in particular, and the Zygon growled.  
"That won't help you Doctor. Not anymore." The Zygon started to shift back, already turning to leave and knocked on the door to signal the guard to let her out. Then she turned back and faced the Doctor once more. "I just wonder, Doctor." Rose Tyler smiled her stunning smile at him. "Would you also have let me kiss you in my true form?"  
The Doctor just stared at her, blankly, without an expression, the hand in his pocket balling into a fist without him taking note of it. His thoughts were racing and he focused on keeping his breath steady. The sound of the door being unlocked seemed to startle the Time Lord and bring him back to reality. "Goodbye, Doctor." Rose said with a sweet smile and he dashed towards the door, which slammed shut right in front of him. He slammed his still clenched fist against it, harshly, laying all his anger, sadness, and frustration in this one blow.


	5. Chapter 4

"This is so unfair. Us being here. This… thing… should sit down here, not us!" Protested Joanita, again feeling like she should say something, and the Doctor spun around to look at her. "You weren't exactly helping a lot!" He snapped, his face in a grimace of all the emotions he felt. He had tried to hide them, tried to swallow them down, ignore them, but it didn't work any longer. He was angry, and you shouldn't get in his way when he was. And once more Joanita was alone in a room with him while he had reached that state. "Stop yelling at me, Doctor!" She said firmly, trying to hide her fear.  
"Or what?" The Doctor didn't lower his voice and Joanita felt tears rising to her eyes. Again. "Just stop it." She yelled and the Doctor's features softened slightly, her fearful tone making the feeling of guilt push everything else back. "I'm sorry." He said, apologizing once more. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let them take you here." Joanita merely gave a slight nod. "It's alright. Just, please, don't shout anymore."  
The Doctor smiled slightly. "I won't." He said softly, then added, "Well, at least not at you." He sighed deeply, before looking at her again. "Are you alright?" He asked, giving her a slightly worried look, and Joanita shrugged. "I guess so. It's all just… a bit much, you know. I've… I've never even had a record for not finished homework until today and now…" She shook her head. "Why is this happening to me?" The Doctor smiled sadly. "I'm sorry." was everything he responded. Then he glanced down to her ankle. "How's your foot doing?" He asked and Joanita shrugged once more. "It's okay." He raised his eyebrows, and Joanita took a step towards a small stool that was placed in the middle of the room. She immediately hissed in pain and shifted her weight back on her healthy foot. "Though, actually, not that good." She admitted and the Doctor walked over to her, pulling over the stool so that she had easy access to it, and made her sit down. "Let me have a look again." He asked and Joanita nodded her consent. The Doctor rolled up the leg of her leggings once more, and took a closer look at her ankle, producing a pair of glasses out of his inner coat pocket. "It's bruised. And badly so", He stated after a while and looked up at Joanita, who had just raised her eyebrows. "Oh, really? Well, I hadn't realised that!" The Doctor shrugged. "It's nothing to worry about really. But it could hinder our escape. So, we gotta do something about it, don't we?"  
Joanita nodded slowly, sarcastically. If there is a way of nodding sarcastically anyway. "So, what are we gonna do about it then?" She asked, waiting for the Doctor to finally tell her what he was going to do.  
"So, there's this thing that we Time Lords can do. It's called 'regeneration'. Now, I could use some of my regeneration energy to heal your ankle. But it will tickle a lot, and you will probably find it to be really… unsettling. It always is when you see it for the first time. When my grandad regenerated when I was little… well, that was quite an experience."  
Joanita nodded slightly. "Well, what are you waiting for?" He grinned. "For you to say just that."  
The Doctor seemed to concentrate for a moment, then there was a faint, orang-y glimmer spreading around his hand. He waited another moment, then gently placed his palm over her ankle. When he touched it, she winced slightly, but after a few moments she already felt how the pain lessened. The orange energy was transferred from his hand into her foot and lower leg, slowly spreading its way through it. He was right, it tickled, but not in a way that would make you laugh. It was a weird tickling, like when blood runs back into your leg after it fell asleep. But less persistent. In half shock, half amazement, Joanita watched how the bruises turned from black to purple, getting fainter and fainter, until finally they were just slight red traces and then gone completely. The Doctor pulled back his hand, and the light faded again.  
"Thank you…" Joanita muttered. The Doctor smiled. "You're welcome."  
The Doctor got back to his feet and after a few seconds started pacing in the cell. He looked like he was trying to figure out what to do, and from time to time a small smile hushed over his features.  
"Doctor?" Joanita was still seated, her shoulders slightly slumped down, because through the silence all the sounds from the previous night returned. The Doctor nodded without turning to look at her.  
Do you regularly experience things like that? How can you be so calm? Who is this Rose? Did you love her? She decided to settle for a less problematic question.  
"This being… what is it? Who is it?" Joanita asked and the Doctor frowned. "It's a Zygon. They are shapeshifters. This one doesn't particularly like me, none of them do, but with this one it's personal." He said, only half explaining anything.   
"And… why… why did you let it kiss you? I mean… I mean, you knew it was this… thing. I don't…" Joanita stopped talking when the Doctor looked up at her, his eyes laced with a look she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was a mixture of hope, guilt, love, regret, shame and - was that hate? "Doesn't matter." Was all he replied and Joanita sighed. His eyes had told her more than he had actually admitted too. Still hoping he was going to say something else she kept quiet for some time, but after a few minutes of silence she gave up the thought. Why did I even ask? She thought and rolled her eyes, then started listening to the noises in her head again.  
After a while, she didn't know how long, she decided they had been quiet long enough. And she decided that they had been in this hole long enough as well.  
"So, what are we gonna do now?" Joanita pushed herself up from the stool, a little surprised that it had actually worked. She didn't even feel the slightest pain.  
The Doctor frowned and finally looked at her again. "What do you mean?" He asked, pretending to be completely oblivious. She knew that he knew what she meant.  
"Well, I don't know you very long and all…" She started and held back an embarrassed laugh when she realized what this sentence was usually starting to imply. At least in films, and stories she had read. So she quickly moved on. "...but you never seemed to be someone to give up so easily." The Doctor merely raised his eyebrows and Joanita sighed. "Listen, we need to get out of here, because I am definitely not staying any longer. And we need to save them. We can't just let them die." She took a deep breath. "And I know you have a plan, Doctor. Stop pretending."  
The Doctor broke into a big grin. "Oh how right you are, you brilliant girl!" He exclaimed and bounced on his heels a little bit. Like a child when it had been promised a trip to base 321 and couldn't wait to go. Joanita had always loved base 321. They had real plants there, and even a few vegetables. She had loved to look at them when she was smaller. "Of course I'm not giving up. How could I? I've been protecting humanity for about 900 years and it's not going to end here!"  
Joanita was slightly confused by the Doctor's sudden burst of positive energy, but she didn't protest. She thought it to be a rather good change to him being all grumpy and snappy. She nodded slightly. "So, what have you been doing for the past thirty minutes if it wasn't giving up? Planning, I assume?"  
"Oh, I was waiting."  
"Waiting for what?" Joanita inquired and the Doctor grinned again.  
"For you to trust in me." He said as he walked over to the door and bowed down slightly to examine the lock. "I did do that before, you know…" Joanita said with a frown, but the Doctor merely shook his head. "Nope." He said. "You maybe thought you did, but you never really believed we could make it." He scrunched up his nose. "Sometimes boredom can work wonders."  
He turned back again and smiled. "We'll be out in a few minutes. This lock shouldn't be hard to pick with a hair pin." He held up one of Joanita's pins and her mouth fell open. "You are… you are seriously telling me you could have picked that lock… like… the whole time?"  
The Doctor frowned slightly. "Yes. Why?"  
"You've spent a whole hour, maybe even more, wasting our time walking up and down in this cell, while we could have been out there, evacuating the people?"  
The Doctor scrunched up his face again. "Uhm… possibly… I… I think I'm starting to get your point though." Suddenly Joanita stood very close to him, her index finger way too close to his eye to be to his liking. "You won't. Ever. Do something like that again." She said angrily, and the Doctor swallowed slightly. "Well…" He started, but the finger came a bit closer and he shut his mouth. "You left me, sitting here, a whole hour, knowing that by sundown my people will all be dead and that time is running out to save them. And you didn't even CONSIDER telling me that you could simply pick the lock?" The Doctor cleared his throat. "I did, in fact, consider it, once or twice, but…"  
"I can't believe it!" Joanita exclaimed and delivered a smack to the Doctor's arm. Not a harsh one, but hard enough for Joanita to feel like she got her point through. For a moment she was taken back by the fact that the Doctor didn't stop her from hitting him. She had seen what he was able to do when he had caught the Zygon's wrist, and yet here he was, eyes widened in surprise as he brought up a hand to clutch his arm. "What was that for?" He protested in a pitched voice. "Why are people smacking me so much recently?"  
Joanita scoffed, hiding her own shock about the whole situation. At least she was mad at him, wasn't she? "Have you heard yourself talk? Like, ever? You can be glad that this was the first time for today. You're a knob, Doctor, and an absolute idiot! And now MOVE and open that stupid door! Gosh!" Joanita huffed out a breath and turned to face away from the Doctor, who just stood there for ten seconds, processing what had just happened, then he quietly went to work on the lock. Joanita had never meant to actually threaten the Doctor, and she didn't know whether telling him that she would want to smack him again was actually considered a threat, yet she felt terribly guilty for it. She had never meant to yell at him either. Or to insult him for that matter. On the other hand, he had let her sit here for over an hour just waiting for her to trust him, so he deserved it, didn't he? After a few seconds pondering Joanita decided that, no, he hadn't deserved any of it at all. He was the only one trying to help her and her people, and even if his way of doing so didn't match her idea of it, that didn't change facts. Gingerly, she turned around again, looking at the Time Lord. The Doctor was still occupied with the lock when he heard silent shuffling behind him and quickly pretended to be trying really hard. Actually, it wasn't that difficult, just a bit fiddly, but he should manage. "Sorry." He heard Joanita's voice after some time. "Didn't mean to hurt you." The Doctor smiled slightly to himself, happy for a reason he couldn't really put his finger on. He thought probably it was because he didn't hear the word 'sorry' directed at himself too often. "That's already forgiven." He said. Then there was a clicking noise and the Doctor was back straight up on his feet in the tenth of a second. "Ah-hah!" He exclaimed, then he pushed open the door. He rubbed his arm once more, as he looked at Joanita who proceeded to walk past him out of the cell. "Well, I probably won't forget it for some time though…" He remarked and raised his eyebrows at her. Joanita chuckled. "I hope so. You really had it coming." No he didn't, but he knows I don't mean that, right?  
"Oi!" The Doctor had a mock frown on his face, but it turned into a grin quite soon. Somehow Joanita had the urge to hug him, but before she could ponder on that thought the Doctor had grabbed her hand and pulled her along. Together they ran down the hallway, their steps echoing harshly on the hollow metal ground, until they arrived on the next door.  
"We need to get my screwdriver back." The Doctor told Joanita as they peeked through the door. "You see? The thing the guard twirls in his fingers?"  
Joanita nodded. "Yeah, the thing you scanned my key card with. I remember." She sounded snarky and the Doctor gave her a look. "What?" She asked and grinned. Somehow she really started to feel comfortable around this weird guy.  
"So, we need a distraction. One of us has to go in, casually chat with him, as if it were the most natural thing that we are being here. The other one will get the sonic."  
Joanita raised her eyebrows. "So what are you gonna do?"  
The Doctor grinned. "Oh, I'm brilliant at distraction and seeming totally natural in places I obviously shouldn't be in."  
Joanita couldn't argue with that.  
"When you get in, you need to do exactly as I indicate. You need to react in an instant and you need to be fast."  
Joanita gave a nod and the Doctor smiled. "Brilliant."  
With these words, he strolled into the room.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter than the other ones. But the next one is going to be longer again. :)

After a short intermezzo with the prison guard, who didn't get to keep the Doctor's screwdriver any longer, the two of them were running down the hallway to the governess's office. "That was your plan? Just… snatch it off him?" Joanita called while she tried to keep up with the Doctor, who had decidedly much longer legs than her. "It worked, didn't it?" The Doctor responded and threw a grin over his shoulder, then hurried about. "Well, yes, but I really was expecting a bit more sophisticated instructions!" The young woman gave back between ragged breaths. After scattering down one last, long corridor, they came to a hold in front of the door, Joanita panting in exhaustion, and the Doctor fit as ever.  
"Are you always doing so much running?" Joanita complained and the Doctor shrugged. "Well, you know, it's… not really unhealthy. And, I guess, being chased around is somehow part of the job."  
The young woman raised her eyebrows. "Job?"  
The Doctor tilted his head. "Not really a job exactly. I'm sort of… freelancing."  
"Oh, I see." Joanita scoffed slightly, then grinned at him.  
"So, what are we gonna do now?"  
"Break in of course. Negotiate." As the Doctor said it, it sounded like the most natural thing in the world and Joanita raised her eyebrows in response. "Are you being serious?"  
The Doctor nodded and a huge grin spread on his face. "When am I not?" He joked and whipped out his sonic in a melodramatic gesture. Joanita laughed. "So, this is sort of your tool for every use?" "Yup." The Doctor popped the 'p' in the end of the word, then proceeded to hold his sonic against the lock. "That should be easy." He stated, and with a quiet click the door opened. The Doctor was the first one to step in, but Joanita followed really close on his heels. Quickly, the Doctor closed the door behind them.  
"And now?" Joanita inquired, standing in the room a bit awkward. "Now we wait." The Doctor replied and walked over to the table, leaning against it in a relaxed posture. "For what?" Joanita sighed and the Doctor tilted his head. "For the governess to show up." He looked incredibly serious for the first time since Joanita had met him. "Then we will prove to her that I said the truth. And then, we will use our remaining time to evacuate the people."  
"Do you think she'll actually listen to us? Not have us arrested right away?" The Doctor straightened up a bit. "Good point. I should quite possibly disable the alarm, shouldn't I?" He grinned and walked around the table, getting out his sonic once more, searching for the alarm. He discovered something else instead.  
There was a folder that looked like it had been shoved under a stack of paper so that no-one would find it. The Doctor couldn't resist and picked it up.  
"What's that?" Joanita asked, but the Doctor shushed her, already being completely engulfed in its contents. His facial expressions shifted crucially while he read through whatever the documents that had been in the folder provided on information. "That-" He looked up after a while that seemed way too short for a person to process the contents of even half a page, leave alone a whole file, and his face lit up with a bright smile. "That is brilliant!" He called out and started pacing through the room. "I should have known! God, I'm so thick!"  
"Could you, for once, just explain what the hell is going on?" Joanita, who was still standing in the exact spot she had stood in the whole time, sounded annoyed. She really was sick of not knowing what the hell was going on.  
"Yeah, I was getting to that in a second." The Doctor took a breath and continued pacing, but spun around to look at Joanita when he started his explanation. Not that that would stop him from walking in any way. "So, the governess knows of the Ossoisiclinia and the whole situation. She knows that Rose is a Zygon." The Doctor took a sharp breath at that, as if trying to change his emotions merely by sucking in air at enough speed. Then he continued, his voice not giving away the slightest hint at what he might be feeling. "This Document is a letter to the leader of base 659. She states her concerns in it. It seems…" He wrinkled his forehead in thought, then he almost jumped up in excitement. "She wrote it and wanted to send it this morning. But she didn't find the time between the attack and our trial to do both. That means, she knows about us. She believed us from the start, just had to keep a pretense up as a cover, so that the Zygon won't notice anything."  
Joanita frowned at that. It all seemed to make sense, except: “Why did this… false Rose infiltrate this base anyway. I mean, she was trying to get at you, wasn’t she?” Before the Doctor could answer, the door behind them slammed shut and they spun around to face whoever had just come in. Joanita breathed a sigh of relief when she saw, it was the governess. Superior presence flooded the room once more and now that Joanita wasn't held up by a guard, she felt the urge to bow to the magnificent woman. Yet, she watched the Doctor, deciding not to do anything the alien wouldn’t do.  
"I've come to negotiate." Said the Doctor in a confident tone. The governess nodded and a reserved smile graced her lips. "So have I,” she announced, her smooth voice filling out the entire room. “After it was reported that you escaped I knew where to find you. What do you know?"  
The Doctor wore a manic grin as he started to rerun the facts in an equally as manic ramble. "So, the Ossoisiclinia are trying to break through the atmosphere, but they need energy for that. This is why they are trying to get into the station. I don't know how it did it yet, I have my theories, but the Zygon that wears Rose Tyler’s features has placed their larvae here when the station was built a hundred years ago. It did it to set me up. It knows, I would land here at some point, following the signal. It wants me to die here. But we have already let the Ossoisiclinia in, which it didn't calculate in its plan. Which means we had the surprise on our side. Joanita! We were never meant to get imprisoned. I've come here too early! This is why it was so easy for us to escape. It wasn't calculated!"  
"Doctor, you're digressing," Joanita interjected with a chuckle, nevertheless being glad for the explanation the Doctor had given her in his ramble. She noticed with amusement that this was the first time the Doctor took a breath since he had started his explanation.  
"Right. Sorry.” The alien said sheepishly and cleared his throat, before taking up speed again. “Now, we know the Ossoisiclinia are in. They’re active at night. So, our only chance to save everyone and avoid a catastrophe like last night, is to evacuate everyone before dusk. That means we've got about…" He closed his eyes and looked like he was listening to something for a moment. "...seven hours for a full evacuation."  
"That is not very much time," the governess stated matter-of-factly, and Joanita nodded her head in agreement.  
"Especially since we have this starfish thingy to deal with," she said thoughtfully.  
The Doctor gave her an odd look. "It's called a Zygon.” His voice had a tremor as if he was trying not to laugh. After a few moments a thoughtful frown deepened on his forehead. “Besides, a starfish? A Zygon looks nothing like a starfish." He sounded frustrated and amused at the same time and wore a lopsided grin. Joanita shrugged and tried hard to will her embarrassed blush away. “It does to me," the young woman said in a small voice and the Doctor tilted his head thoughtfully in response. “Does it? Really?”  
The governess looked vaguely annoyed as she spoke up again. “This is really beside the point right now.” Her voice silenced the two bickering people effectively, and the Doctor cleared his throat.  
"Anyway…," he said sheepishly. "We should get going. Governess?"  
The woman nodded, causing her curls to bob majestically. The Doctor frowned. "I really don't like calling you that. Seems so… holier than thou…” At her questioning look, he hurried on. “Well, just doesn’t seem right, addressing someone with their title. What's your name?"  
The governess looked at him for a moment, as if trying to say ‘You can talk’, but then her gaze softened and her reply came softly. "I am Nadia Irrma-Theta."  
The Doctor nodded, a huge smile spreading on his face. "Nadia - may I call you Nadia? - you give the command to evacuate and make sure all people get on a ship until dusk, and that they are sealed off by then. I'll take care of the Zygon."   
He turned to Joanita, his expression stern but kind. "You get yourself to safety. I am very thankful for everything you've done to help me, but I don't want you to endanger yourself any further."  
"Doctor, that's still my decision!" She protested vehemently, but he didn't let her finish. "You are very young, Joanita. You've got your whole life before you. I simply can't let you put that at risk." He took a breath and continued. “Go to one of the evacuation crafts, get on it, and stay there. Oh, and,” he smiled softly, a small sheen of held back tears barely recognizable in his eyes. “Don’t wander off.” He finished his sentence, and before Joanita could protest any further he had taken off and was headed down the corridor.  
While jogging along the corridors, the Doctor turned and twisted on the settings of his sonic, trying to tune it to the frequency of the Zygon. He stopped dead in his tracks for a moment, staring at the device in annoyance. “C’mon!” He called loudly and smacked the screwdriver against the palm of his hand. These actions earned him a weird stare from an old lady sitting on a makeshift bench. Feeling caught, the Doctor gave her an apologetic smile, before concentrating on the device again. After a few more seconds of muttering, cursing, and twisting, the signal finally picked up. “Hah!” he exclaimed loudly again, but his cheerful expression disappeared in the blink of an eye, when he realized that the noise that was supposed to guide him to his goal signalled that he was already in its immediate surroundings. He groaned in frustration, thinking that he got the wrong frequency again, but missing the obvious conclusion. He started examining the device again, trying to locate what his mistake had been. He felt his inner watch tick. One second-the frequency was correct-, two seconds-that meant the Zygon was close by, but there wasn’t anyone except-, three… Realization dawned on him and his eyes widened, but before he could spin around something hard hit him in the back of his head, and he sacked down to the floor. He passed out before his head hit the metal.


End file.
